The Little Things Matter

Are you a local talk show host? Cool. That's a good thing. See, the NAB is busy telling the FCC that there's no need for any kind of "localism" mandate, because stations are already fulfilling that role, and that means you, 'cause you're talking about nothing but local issues and leaving the national stuff to the big syndicated hosts, right?

Right?

Well, now, that's a problem. I encounter this fairly often, local hosts concentrating on the same national issues that Rush and Hannity and Savage and Levin and any number of other hosts are doing. The "local" angle might be having the local Congressdrone on to parrot the party line in a convivial manner, but local issues? State issues? Small-time.

And that's a problem, too. I admit to having thought like that myself, only not in radio. In a previous life, I was an editorial cartoonist, back when there was still a future for people doing that job. I had an attitude about that, namely that local and state politics bored me. I was shooting higher. I didn't think I'd get anywhere concentrating on Philadelphia or Harrisburg when the big syndicated guys were all about Washington. So that's what I did, too, and I got lost in the shuffle and eventually decided that I'd need to find a career in which I was more likely to earn enough to afford food. (I chose radio. Whoops) Had I concentrated on commentary about what was going on right in my neighborhood -- what was directly impacting me and my neighbors -- I may have succeeded and remained in the newspaper business, and, today, I would, of course, be unemployed.

Radio's no different from cartooning or reporting or anything else. The glamour, such as it is, is in "going national." Doing that, however, means that you'll be ignoring the kind of stuff that can REALLY make you a name, serve your listeners, and make for better talk radio. There's always something going on in your city or state that you can make compelling, but that's especially true right now. In compiling Talk Topics every day, I run across stories from across the country that scream out for some talk radio host to seize on it, get angry, and make something happen. Every day, those stories are out there. Too often, I don't see any local talkers seizing the moment.

Here's what I mean: A major city takes people's homes and businesses to hand over to a rich developer to build a sports arena for his failing basketball team. Public-sector workers in several states are pulling down six figure sums in overtime on top of massively inflated salaries, even when the states themselves are virtually bankrupt and resorting to furloughs to try to save money. Legislatures and mayors are fretting about the calorie counts of school lunches and looking to slap taxes on soda and trash pickup rather than cut what needs to be cut. There are stories like this in every city, stories of inepitude and malfeasance, and they are absolutely tailor-made for talk radio, angry, pitchfork-and-torches talk radio, compelling and entertaining. It doesn't matter what your politics are, or which side you're on. There's plenty of outrage to go around.

See, the local stuff is something you can own. If everyone else is talking about national issues, you can make yourself different by taking advantage of the fact that you DON'T have to be generic. National talkers CAN'T talk about your local issues and personalities. You can. It's your strategic advantage. You can hammer on these things, get people involved, and get a lot of attention while you're looking out for your listeners' best interests. That's not to say that YOU should be organizing the pitchfork parade, but your show can be where like-minded people go to gather. And with a radio show, you have way more ability to build that community than blogs or podcasts or any other medium, because you start with a larger base. It's what talk radio can do better than anyone else.

I'm not, by the way, saying that national isn't good. From health care to Wall Street, there are major issues to be addressed and that's what the syndicated guys do well. All I'm saying is that if you're a local host, you should take advantage of the need for someone to draw attention to the state and local issues that have real impact on your listeners' lives, and make those topics your own.

Oh, yeah, one more reason to do it. There's a study that just came out, measuring how much time local TV news in Los Angeles spent on all kinds of news. They measured the eight stations that do news, and analyzed 14 random days' worth of news shows from last August and September. The result: Out of a typical half hour, 8 minutes and 17 seconds were spent on local news, mostly crime stories. News about government actions took up a minute and 12 seconds, 49 seconds of which were federal. Los Angeles-area government issues? TWENTY TWO SECONDS. TV news isn't paying attention to the mayor or council. Undoubtedly, your city's TV news isn't a whole lot different. Meanwhile, the same study showed the Los Angeles Times, our only market-wide daily paper, devoting a whopping 6% of its news hole to local issues. See the opportunity?

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I mentioned earlier that some of the topics I'm talking about were encountered while writing the Talk Topics column for All Access News-Talk-Sports, and they're in there, along with hundreds of items of all kinds -- national, international, sports, entertainment, kickers, anything any talk radio show might use. Normally, in this space, I'd list a bunch of samples, but I'm not going to do that this week. Instead, I'm going to point you to the all-new Talk Topics Twitter feed at twitter.com/talktopics, where you'll find a handy list of everything in the Talk Topics column. Follow @talktopics and you'll be able to keep up with everything I throw in there, as soon as I write 'em up. And while you're at it, follow twitter.com/allaccess to get the biggest headlines from Net News first. Oh, what the heck, follow twitter.com/pmsimon too, for my personal, not-at-all-Joel's-fault comments on whatever's bothering me at the moment, usually involving Philadelphia sports teams or my cat.

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I told you that I would be mentioning the Revlon Run/Walk for Women 2010 every week right up to the event itself May 8th in Los Angeles, and I'm sticking to that. Here's what it is: Lots of people gather at the Los Angeles Coliseum and walk in a big loop around the USC campus and into the stadium to raise money for women's cancer research and treatment. The walking is kind of beside the point, since the donations aren't related to how far you walk or run, but who's counting? Besides, it's always a nice day out and my wife Fran and I have a particular stake in the issue, so we do it every year. And we ask everyone who can donate to do so, understanding that, well, times are tough, but if you can do it, this is a great cause and all donations will be appreciated. Just go to https://www.revlonrunwalk.com/la/secure/MyWebPage.cfm?pID=533458 and enter your donation. Thank you!

And thank you!

Perry Michael Simon
Editor
All Access News-Talk-Sports
psimon@allaccess.com
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www.twitter.com/pmsimon